What's your coolest trick?

[inthedark]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Feb 25 2003, 05:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> * If it isn't Aggie having a nude photograph taken in her younger days, then....* </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
How about one taken of me a month or two ago. The main person trying to get me to open the shop to photographers had a gallery exhibit and needed models. He usually either covers up the head with something artistic, or cuts it out of the shot, so I felt I could help out and not be "compromised". He did really well, and wow for a 42 year old (me), he did a great job of making me look good and everything. Seeing the results took ten years off my attitude. LOL

 

[fhovie]

I don't think I saw this one yet. I keep a laser pointer in my bag and in low light, I place a dot where I want the focus to be. It is easy to focus the bright dot.
Frank

 

[Thilo Schmid]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (fhovie @ May 8 2003, 06:37 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I don't think I saw this one yet. I keep a laser pointer in my bag and in low light, I place a dot where I want the focus to be. It is easy to focus the bright dot.
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Good idea Frank. I occasionally used a small Maglite with removed head for that purpose. A laser pointer might be a better choice if you cannot place a lamp on the scene or have no one to hold a lamp. However, I think the Maglite is brighter, which is an advantage when focusing WA-Lenses on the edges of a ground glass.

 

[Ed Sukach]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Darkroom ChromaCrafts @ May 7 2003, 07:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Feb 25 2003, 05:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> * If it isn't Aggie having a nude photograph taken in her younger days, then....* </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
How about one taken of me a month or two ago. The main person trying to get me to open the shop to photographers had a gallery exhibit and needed models. He usually either covers up the head with something artistic, or cuts it out of the shot, so I felt I could help out and not be &quot;compromised&quot;. He did really well, and wow for a 42 year old (me), he did a great job of making me look good and everything. Seeing the results took ten years off my attitude. LOL </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Hah!! I've learned NOT to lose my cool.

Oh. Interesting.

So ... why is my lower lip bleeding?

 

[inthedark]

Okay, back to the topic. . .(blushing in spite of myself) . . .my best trick is to always mix developers, especially color developers, with distilled water. I find that the local water seems to interfere with the chemistry and fluctuates at that. When I switched to distilled, with or without additional corrections, I get very consistent and predictable results. For $0.67 per gallon it is a huge saving in time and frustration.

Also a voltage meter on the enlarger lights helped a lot. I am in an old industrial park and I noticed that when I printed off hours, my exposures were about half what they are during the day. (I may shoot the same three rolls of aerial film two or three times a week, giving me very accurate comparisons). A voltage regulator cleared that up so now I don't have to peek my head out to listen to how many machines I hear. LOL.

 

[Robert Kennedy]

I like the laser pointer idea.

One thing I find VERY annoying is when I am using my F80, is that stupid low-light assist light. Some person at Nikon decided to make it an insanely bright white-light.

Which totally screws up shots when you don't want people to notice. They all turn to see what the light is!

I like the assist light on my flash which is RED and very unobtrusive.

Red is the way to go. I am thinking of coating the assist light red on the camera so that when I am shooting fast film I can focus easily and unnoticed.

 

[docholliday]

Ok, me again. For low light focusing, I've modified my Stroboframe Reggie (QR-66) with other strobo parts to have 3 hot shoes + metz mount. On one of the shoes sits a 10W rechargable video light. Great for focusing in low light.

Also, when I shoot my Hasselblad without a bracket, I have a modified white LED flashlight with a thin Roscolux filter chunk and old cold shoe off of a *flash*. I also added a touch pad type switch from Digikey and a thin piece of flexible pc board. With this sitting on my prism (or on the side shoe if I'm shooting WL) and the switch double-sided taped to my winder, I can touch the pad to light up my "color-corrected" focusing light. Once I get the focus corrrect, I slide my finger off the pad and onto the shutter release. (Made it for $20.00)

I tried the laser pointer idea about 2 years ago and I realized how rude it was to point a laser diode at somebody's face when you want to focus for the eyes! (not to mention how pissed off somebody gets from the 1mw laser in their eyes!)

 

[fhovie]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (docholliday @ May 9 2003, 12:08 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I tried the laser pointer idea about 2 years ago and I realized how rude it was to point a laser diode at somebody's face when you want to focus for the eyes! (not to mention how pissed off somebody gets from the 1mw laser in their eyes!) </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Yep - I guess that would be pretty rude! I never used one (laser pointer) for portraits. Portraits either get hot lights or my big strobes that have really decent modeling lamps in them. I had to laugh about the laser on the forhead though - Bad plan indeed. I did a few weddings - I think it would take an enormous amount of money or a very weak moment for me to accept one again. When i do portraits, it is not for them (although I give them a favorite) - It is strictly for what the portrait is for me - like a landscape or still life. Most of the portraits I do are LF. They know it will be a lot of holding still and waiting for me to get it just right. And that there will be a lot of light on them in the process. Often my DOF is less than 1/2 inch in a portrait - so they need to be very relaxed - I need that closest eye to be right on. It is what I like right now anyway.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

One good low-light focus trick I've heard, replicating the old Kalart Focuspot trick, is to aim a laser pointer through the eyepiece of a rangefinder on a rangefinder camera (obviously not aimed at someone's face). This will project two spots, and when the spots are in line on the subject, the subject is in focus. I've tried it with a small LED flashlight, and it works in principle, but one spot is fuzzy and one is sharp, making it pretty imprecise. The laser pointer is supposed to solve the fuzziness problem.

 

[docholliday]

BTW, forgot to mention...don't EVER take a laser pointer to a mafia wedding...

 

[Lex Jenkins]

My favorite tricks don't have much to do with exposure, at least not directly:

1. I always carry a keychain size flashlight, either a Mini Mag-Lite or one of the nifty newish LED lights. Even if I'm not shooting at night or indoors there are times when extremely contrasty bright sunshine can make it difficult to read the aperture ring, shutter speed dial, etc.

2. I *nearly* always carry a bubble level. Mine's an inexpensive, small but reliable Credo Pocket Level with two bubble vials.

3. When shooting 35mm I note (either directly on the cassette, on a bit of masking tape or a note tucked into the film can with the film) the EI, date and which developer I had in mind for a particular shooting session.

 

[Black Dog]

My favourite dodge is loading 2 120 films on 1 spiral-when you've loaded 1, stick down the tape on the end attaching the film to the backing paper-this is the crucial bit as it stops the films riding over each other-and then push it all the way round until it stops. Then load the 2nd film using the ratchet. Just tried it and it works great.

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

A silly one

I've just purchased a cheap digital count down timer (used for cooking, I believe) that beeps when it reaches zero.

Very handy for film tank inversion every X minutes, 'telling' it's time to take the paper out of the dev tray, etc.

Jorge O

 

[Eric Rose]

Black Dog, a picture would be worth a 1000 words.

 

[removed account4]

windshield wipers make the best squeegees